Related papers: Beyond Pairwise: Higher-order physical interaction…
When two molecular species with mutual affinity are mixed together, various self-assembled phases can arise at low temperature, depending on the shape of like and unlike interactions. Among them, stripes -- where layers of one type are…
Spatially uniform electric fields have been used to induce instabilities in liquids and polymers, and to orient and deform ordered phases of block-copolymers. Here we discuss the demixing phase transition occurring in liquid mixtures when…
Cells contain multiple condensates which spontaneously form due to the heterotypic interactions between their components. Although the proteins and disordered region sequences that are responsible for condensate formation have been…
We present an extension of the multiparticle collision dynamics method for flows with complex interfaces, including supramolecular near-contact interactions mimicking the effect of surfactants. The new method is demonstrated for the case of…
Biological cells and synthetic analogues use liquid-liquid phase separation to dynamically compartmentalize their environment for various applications. In many cases, multiple droplets need to coexist, and their size needs to be controlled,…
The nonlinear optical response of a system of molecules often contains contributions whereby the products of lower-order processes in two separate molecules give signals that appear on top of a genuine direct higher-order process with a…
Exchange of biochemical substances is essential way in establishing communication between bacterial cells. It is noticeable that all phases of the process are heavily influenced by perturbations of either internal or external parameters.…
Disordered systems like liquids, gels, glasses, or granular materials are not only ubiquitous in daily life and in industrial applications but they are also crucial for the mechanical stability of cells or the transport of chemical and…
Multicomponent phase separation is a routine occurrence in both living and synthetic systems. Thermodynamics provides a straightforward path to determine the phase boundaries that characterize these transitions for systems at equilibrium.…
We study phase separation between coexisting active and passive fluids in three-dimensions, using numerical simulation and experiments. Chaotic flows of the active phase drive giant interfacial deformations, causing the co-existing phases…
Living and engineered systems rely on the stable coexistence of two interspersed liquid phases. Yet surface tension drives their complete separation. Here we show that stable droplets of uniform and tuneable size can be produced through…
Phase separation under non-equilibrium conditions is exploited by biological cells to organize their cytoplasm but remains poorly understood as a physical phenomenon. Here, we study a ternary fluid model in which phase-separating molecules…
We study how hydrodynamic interactions affect the collective behaviour of active particles suspended in a fluid at high concentrations, with particular attention to lubrication forces which appear when the particles are very close to one…
The human brain is a complex system defined by multi-way, higher-order interactions invisible to traditional pairwise network models. Although a diverse array of analytical methods has been developed to address this shortcoming, the field…
Pairwise interactions between perturbations to a system can provide evidence for the causal dependencies of the underlying underlying mechanisms of a system. When observations are low dimensional, hand crafted measurements, detecting…
Communication between cells is realized by exchange of biochemical substances. Due to internal organization of living systems and variability of external parameters, the exchange is heavily influenced by perturbations of various parameters…
So-called polar liquid crystals possess spontaneous long-range mutual orientation of their electric dipole moments, conferring bulk polarity to fluid phases of matter. The combination of polarity and fluidity leads to complex phase…
The propagation of information in social, biological and technological systems represents a crucial component in their dynamic behavior. When limited to pairwise interactions, a rather firm grip is available on the relevant parameters and…
We use a continuum, two-fluid approach to study a mixture of two active nematic fluids. Even in the absence of thermodynamically-driven ordering, for mixtures of different activities we observe turbulent microphase separation, where domains…
Elastic interactions arising from a difference of lattice spacing between two coherent phases can have a strong influence on the phase separation (coarsening) of alloys. If the elastic moduli are different in the two phases, the elastic…